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I need approx size 12" diameter x 48" length Boiler horizontal expansion tank

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NOINNeedHeat
NOINNeedHeat Member Posts: 5
in Radiant Heating

I think Radiant heat is the perfect for the COLD in Northern Indiana winters. My husband thinks that the pretty consistent overflow of water from the relief valve is an indicator that the system is going to blow up and we will be dead in the morning. He won't let me turn it on. I think I'm going to freeze to death instead - ok maybe poor heat humor for 10:31 pm at night.

I can see about 1/3 of the label without taking this tank down. I think the new boiler was installed about 20 years ago. I think we have a PWB Dunkirk Model 60 Boiler. The space between the floor joists (ceiling of the basement) is 13-3/4", I'm guessing the diameter is 12" and I'm sure the length is 48".

The only maintenance, was perhaps a regulator valve last year. I broke my leg during this maintenance visit and didn't finish with the replacement of the expansion tank. 2024 is high on the list of 's**t' happens.

I can't locate an expansion tank with this measurements. Does anyone recognize the label?

AND it seems that horizontal expansion tanks don't exist in this size.

I'm trying to find the tank price, so I will know if the price to replace it is reasonable.

20251103_100409.jpg

Forced air would require plaster removal, that idea has less then 5% implementation odds in this household.

Northern Indiana Need Heat

Comments

  • NOINNeedHeat
    NOINNeedHeat Member Posts: 5

    See that pretty hammered paint finish on my expansion tank?

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,631

    why do you want to replace it?

    how often have you drained it? if the system is designed right the air should migrate back to the compression tank but sometimes that doesn't work out perfectly and you have to drain it to restore the charge.

    there can not be any automatic air vents on a system with a compression tank? are there any automatic vents?

  • HydronicMike
    HydronicMike Member Posts: 245

    It just needs to be drained and recharged. Your relief valve release is most likely from a waterlogged expansion tank.
    Get a competent hydronics pro in there to do that, and check your relief valve, boiler feed and the boiler itself to make sure everything is operating properly and safely.
    Have them show you how to properly drain/recharge the tank.

    Ironman
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 19,602

    Indiana? Good luck finding a boiler guy there.

  • leonz
    leonz Member Posts: 1,761
    edited December 11

    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/202531/i-need-approx-size-12-diameter-x-48-length-boiler-horizontal-expansion-tank

    Good morning NOINNEEDHEAT,

    Speaking as a homeowner with a steel compression tank to maintain the point of no pressure change in my heating system:

    You do not need a new tank. Galvanised steel compression tanks of this size are still made, you do not need a new tank, your system needs a bit of work, that is all it needs.

    Mattmia2 and hydronic mike are correct, the system needs to be drained down to allow the point of no pressure change to be recreated in your heating system by draining 1/3 to 1/2 of the water in the tank out to allow air to create the air cushion above the water charge in the steel compression tank.

    If you can upload more pictures of your system and the boiler plumbing that will help us to help us help you so you have warm floors and walls again quickly.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,842

    To add to @leonz 's comment. You don't need new parts. If you can back off from the tank and the boiler enough to take a few pictures to show the tank and any pipes connecting it to the rest of the system (or any other pipes attached to it!) and any valves on those pipes we can tell you how to drain the tank (you don't have to drain the whole system) and get things back the way they need to be. It's not hard…

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • NOINNeedHeat
    NOINNeedHeat Member Posts: 5

    I just found the responses. I could not find that the message posted, my apologies. I logged in tonight to search for answers to my other question and found this post.

    I started calling HVAC companies and asked if they had anyone with 20 years experience with working on boilers and did not hate them, after doing a search on Angi's list. I found a guy, but he was out with a surgery, but they had another employee, who might have been 27, did a great job, and drained expansion tank, and it is working fine. It just didn't seem like the tank was in trouble as it had no visual signs of pin holes, or leaking, etc, etc…

    The person who was scheduling said he liked boilers… when he got here, he said he has a love/hate relationship with them, but surprisingly, there are more boilers in Northern Indiana, then I thought.

    Thanks!

    NOINNeedheat…

  • NOINNeedHeat
    NOINNeedHeat Member Posts: 5

    I am the person who has always been here for the boiler, as my work schedule is a little more flexible then husband's, the expansion tank was never drained in the last 20 years.

    NOINNeedheat

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,631

    if you click the little ribbon thing at the upper right of the post it will e-mail you when someone replies to the post.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 15,631

    the air can migrate out of the expansion tank over time. draining the water out and letting it recharge with air/water as you re-pressurize it is normal maintenance. some systems are designed to do a better job of keeping the charge in the tank than others.

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